DIGGING DEEP

Harvey Sugden, event manager of Hillhead, walked StandOut through site developments

With just under 18,500 unique visitors, Hillhead 2022 proved to be one of the busiest and best-attended shows in the event’s 40-year history. After a four-year gap, it was important that QMJ Group, organiser of the quarrying, construction, and recycling trade show, blasted out the gates with new developments that would cement the event’s return.

“Our last show was in 2018,” explained Harvey Sugden, Hillhead’s event manager. “We were well on with our planning for 2020 when COVID struck. We regrouped quickly and announced dates for 2021 and then that didn’t happen. In 2018, we knew that our 2020 show was going to be bigger, and so we continued with our plans, riding the wave of 2018, which was a bumper show.”

Taking place in a limestone quarry in Derbyshire, Hillhead 2022 featured several site developments, including a larger show floor, a level show floor, larger exhibitor and registration pavilions [a 20m x 80m structure and a 20m x 75m], new sustainability measures, and sitewide hard-wired fibre-optic broadband. The new solution delivered three times the bandwidth provided at the last event, increasing capacity from 300mb to more than a gigabit.

The new moves were essential, especially as construction technology is a growing trend. Richard Bradbury, event director of Hillhead, said that application of digital tools in quarrying and construction was increasingly prevalent. Therefore, it was important that Hillhead enabled exhibitors to showcase the latest technology available to the industry. Hillhead’s investment in fibre allowed exhibitors to book more powerful Internet packages at a lower cost than before and free Wi-Fi hotspots were available around the site for visitors.

“It’s been a big job,” said Sugden. “In 2014, Max Wifi installed a satellite solution for us but then we discovered there was fibre optic in the village down the road. Now, we have fibre laid across the site and we’ve been digging ducts at a rate of knots so that the team could lay the fibre.”

COSTS AND CONTRACTORS

Most of Hillhead’s developments have been “cosmetic” – a reshaped and expanded site has required a new fenceline, and the quarry floor which had a gradient has been levelled. This has made the show’s build easier.

Sugden continued: “I have been event manager at Hillhead since 2016 and I inherited a steady ship. We have lots of contractors in place and for a show of this size, you need continuity. Our contractors know our site well, so we don’t change them lightly or quickly but this year we have had to out of necessity.

HARVEY SUGDEN

“For example, our cleaning contractor didn’t make it through the pandemic, so we have new cleaners and new caterers too.”

Hillhead’s operations team is small. Sugden is assisted on-site by Bradbury and Abi Smith, assistant event manager. There’s a showground team and a quarry team, each taking responsibility for their section of the show, which includes 30,000 tonnes of quarry stone that was blasted for equipment demonstration purposes at this year’s event.

To prep the site, Sugden has had a 75-tonne and a 35-tonne excavator on-site for three weeks; sometimes drinking 500 litres of fuel per day. It’s huge cost.

“Fuel is a massive cost for us this time round,” Sugden added further. “Fuel for power is one thing but our biggest cost is fuel for the machines that prepare our site. It’s a lot of money.”

LOOKING AHEAD

Hillhead has tried to save money by powering the main indoor exhibition areas on HVO. It’s just one sustainability measure that has been implemented at the event. Single-use plastic is also off the menu at vending and catering areas, recycling points have been increased, and the organiser has promoted car sharing because the event site is not easily accessible via public transport. But it’s something that Sugden and Bradbury are looking at for 2024.

“We’re always thinking ahead and we’re always looking to grow,” said Sugden. “We looked at providing shuttle buses this year from Buxton train station, but we just couldn’t make it work. But it’s on the radar and we’d like to do it for our next show and broaden our use of HVO. Also, we are looking at installing some electric charging points for cars in our car parks.”

For the first time, this year’s show build was time-lapsed. The resulting footage will enable Sugden and the team to identify where efficiencies can be made for Hillhead 2024.

Sugden concluded: “People who regularly visit Hillhead will notice the changes and the show’s size and scale. We’ve gone up a notch again and I am really pleased that we have been able to represent our industry and that we’re back after four years.”

Hillhead will return on June 25-27, 2024.

SUPPLIERS LIST

Cleaning – A1 Cleaning Temporary structures – GL events UK Plant – Ace Plant Generators/electrics – NEE Fencing – John Atkin and Arena Portable buildings – Wernick Events Traffic management – CTM Radios – 900 Comms Air conditioning – Andrews Sykes Flagpoles – Harrisons EDS